Having Someone Wait for You…
In Robert Enrico’s silent film An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge, when the protagonist is running back home, the camera runs along with him & at one point when he falls down, the camera stops, almost like saying, “Buddy, I’ll wait for you till you are ready to run again.”
Every time while watching this film, the point where the camera stops for the protagonist, did something to me. It made my heart ache, it made my eyes wet, there would be a lump in my throat, it brought a slight smile to my face. Why? I never understood.
Recently a friend who is recovering slowly from a complicated surgery texted saying how she feels LEFT BEHIND, & how even the most compassionate ones, even when empathetic to your situation, are not able to/ do not pause for you, when life makes you stop for a while, applies the brake to your journey & how this- life and people carrying on with life- makes you feel irrelevant.
Reading the text not only made me feel a bit sad, and guilty, because as a friend I should be pausing, but also made me realize why that scene from Enrico’s film always created the ripples it created.
Don’t we all long to have friends who will pick us up when we fall down, those who will nurse our injuries when we collapse? But rarely do people pause for you and say, “I will wait till you are ready to run again.” So, when the camera stopped and waited for Farquhar, the protagonist of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, it touched the heart.
Crazy Mind's Eye 